Approved at general meeting on 30 April 2009

Chapter I

GENERAL PROVISIONS

1. „Estonian Subject Thesaurus“ has been established and is managed by non-profit association Estonian Libraries Network Consortium (hereinafter ELNET).

2. „Estonian Subject Thesaurus“ (hereinafter thesaurus) is an online thesaurus which covers all subject fields and is meant for Estonian-language indexing of different types of publications as well as for information search.

3. The purpose of the thesaurus is to make available to Estonian libraries and other institutions the authority data of subject terms for use in the online catalogue ESTER, Database of Estonian Articles ISE, catalogues of other libraries and other databases.

4. The thesaurus was created by merging the “Estonian Universal Thesaurus” managed by the National Library of Estonia, and the thesaurus INGRID managed by the University of Tartu Library.

5. The official name of the thesaurus is „Eesti märksõnastik“, its official abbreviation is EMS. The English-language name of the thesaurus is “Estonian Subject Thesaurus”.

6. The visual identity of the thesaurus is defined by its logo, wordmark, brand colours and typography (see Annex 1). Misrepresenting or arbitrary changing of the visual identity is prohibited.

7. Access to the thesaurus:

7.1. the thesaurus is public and freely accessible in the internet;
7.2. when creating internet access to the thesaurus, the official address of the thesaurus (ems.elnet.ee) and official name, abbreviation or logo must be used;
7.3. institutions involved in managing the thesaurus may freely use the data and software of the thesaurus for developing their own information systems. Other institutions may integrate the thesaurus into their information systems with the permission of ELNET.

Chapter II

COMPILING THE THESAURUS

8. Libraries of ELNET members (hereinafter member libraries) involved in compiling the thesaurus form the editorial board of the thesaurus which consists of the manager of the thesaurus and the editors of the thesaurus. The work of the editorial board is managed by the manager of the thesaurus.

9. The editorial board cooperates with the working group of classification and indexing of ELNET.

10. The basis for compiling the thesaurus are:

10.1. ISO standard ISO 2788 “Documentation – Guidelines for the establishment and development of monolingual thesauri”
10.2. additional guidlines approved by the editorial board of the thesaurus.

Chapter III

RIGHTS AND OBLIGATIONS IN MANAGING THE THESAURUS

11. ELNET is obliged to:

11.1. order, install, manage, develop, safeguard and, upon necessity, update the central hardware and software required for managing the thesaurus;
11.2. regularly make backup copies of the data in the thesaurus;
11.3. employ the manager of the thesaurus;
11.4. ensure the availability of guidelines necessary for managing the thesaurus, and to randomly check the compliance with requirements of data entered in the thesaurus;
11.5. prepare and make available the user guides of the thesaurus;
11.6. regularly update the authority records of subject terms in the online catalogue ESTER and the Database of Articles ISE on the basis of the thesaurus.

12. Member libraries are obliged to:

12.1. compile the thesaurus subject to the requirements of clause 12 of these statutes;
12.2. give permission to only authorised employees to enter, amend and delete data in and from the thesaurus;
12.3. suspend the permission of the employee for access to the thesaurus upon the expiry of their authorisation;
12.4. ensure the safety of the thesaurus within their powers;
12.5. appoint their representative(s) to the editorial board of the thesaurus;
12.6. follow the guidelines and agreements on the management of the thesaurus.

13. Upon the resignation or exclusion of a member library from managing the thesaurus, ELNET is entitled to preserve the data of this member library in the thesaurus.

Chapter IV

FINANCING OF THESAURUS

14. License and maintenance costs of the central software and hardware necessary for managing the thesaurus shall be covered from the income received from the budgets of ELNET member libraries.

15. ELNET shall keep accounts of the management costs of the thesaurus pursuant to the procedure prescribed in the Accounting Act and shall report on it to its members.